Before Tomorrow

New in March 2010! Nine Canadian Genie Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Costumes, Sound, Original Song. Four Quebec Jutra Award nominations, Best Picture, Director, Costumes, Music.

A co-production of Igloolik Isuma Productions and Kunuk Cohn Productions, Before Tomorrow is the first feature film written and directed by Igloolik's Arnait Video Productions women's collective, which has been filming Inuit women's stories since 1991 based on cultural authenticity and community involvement.

Before Tomorrow is directed by Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu from a script by Susan Avingaq, Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu, adapted from the novel For morgendagen by the acclaimed Danish writer Jørn Riel. It is produced by Stéphane Rituit, with executive producers Norman Cohn and Zacharias Kunuk. Leading the cast are Madeline Ivalu and her grandson Paul-Dylan Ivalu, joined by Mary Qulitalik, Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq and Tumasie Sivuarapik.

Before Tomorrow is the story of a woman who demonstrates that human dignity is at the core of life from beginning to end, as she faces with her grandson the ultimate challenge of survival. The film was shot in remote locations near the community of Puvirnituq, Nunavik (norhtern Quebec) over four separate periods between July 2006 and January 2007 to capture the arctic seasons from June though December.

Before Tomorrow premiered in Igloolik on the weekend of February 23-24, 2008. Members of the Arnait Video collective (Susan Avingaq, Madeline Ivalu, Carol Kunnuk and Marie-Hélène Cousineau) presented the film in front of attentive audiences in the school gym. Actors, props and select costumes from the film were also on display. As with previous films produced by Igloolik Isuma Productions, the film's first audience was the community involved in making the film. The following month producers also screened the film in Puvirnituq, Nunavik, where the film was shot.

Before Tomorrow was released in Canada by Alliance Motion Picture Distribution and Alliance Vivafilm in March 2009. Before Tomorrow is distributed internationally by Isuma Distribution International. U.S. premiere was a two-week run at Film Forum in New York December 2-15, 2009.The film now is available for Video-on-Demand download in standard definition or full HD from isuma.tv/fastrunnertrilogy.

The founding mandate of Igloolik Isuma Productions is to empower Inuit voices to tell their own stories. Isuma's first feature, Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, won the Camera d'or at Cannes 2001 and Best Picture at Canada's 2002 Genie Awards. Isuma's second feature, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, opened the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. Isuma's executive producers, Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn, continue this mandate in Isuma's third feature film, Before Tomorrow, the first written and produced by the Arnait Video Women's Collective.

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